A STORY FROM AUDUBON 147 



ing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As 

 the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current 

 of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon 

 knocked down by the pole-men. The birds continue 

 to pour in. The fires were lighted, and a magnifi- 

 cent, as well as wonderful and almost terrifying, 

 sight, presented itself. The pigeons, arriving by 

 thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, 

 until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed 

 on the branches all round. Here and there the 

 perches gave way under the weight with a crash, and 

 falling to the ground, destroyed hundreds of the 

 birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with 

 which every stick was loaded. It was a scene of up- 

 roar and confusion. I found it quite useless to 

 speak, or even to shout to those persons who were 

 nearest to me. Even the reports of the guns were 

 seldom heard, and I was made aware of the firing 

 only by seeing the shooters reloading. 



" 'No one dared venture within the line of devas- 

 tation. The hogs had been penned up in due time, 

 the picking up of the dead and wounded being left 

 for the next morning's employment. The pigeons 

 were constantly coming, and it was past midnight 

 before I perceived a decrease in the number of those 

 that arrived. The uproar continued the whole night. 

 . . . Toward the approach of day, the noise in some 

 measure subsided, long before objects were distin- 

 guishable, the pigeons began to move off in a direc- 

 tion quite different from that in which they had ar- 

 rived the evening before, and at sunrise all that were 



